Pika

Project Description

Pika is a recipe management app that allows users to store, organize, and access their favorite recipes with ease. The app is designed for both beginner and experienced cooks, offering a variety of features to suit every cooking need.

The app allows users to create, edit, and search their own recipes, making it easy to keep track of all their favorite dishes. Users can add ingredients, instructions, and even add photos of the finished dish to their recipe.

Problem

Recipe management apps are designed to help users organize and access their favorite recipes with ease, but there are several common problems that users may encounter. One of the main issues is difficulty in searching and finding specific recipes. Many recipe management apps lack a robust search function, making it difficult for users to find specific recipes quickly and easily.

The lack of options for dietary restrictions is also a common problem with recipe management apps. Additionally, some recipe management apps do not allow users to edit or add their own recipes, making it difficult for users to personalize their recipe collection.

Solution

Pika is a solution to the common problems with recipe management apps. It offers a variety of features that address the issues users may encounter with other recipe management apps. Pika also offers a variety of search options, including the ability to search by ingredient, recipe type, or dietary restrictions. This makes it easy for users to find recipes that fit their specific needs, whether it's a vegetarian dish or something gluten-free. Another unique feature of Pika is its random recipe generator, which can help users plan their meals and grocery shopping more effectively.

Timeline

My Role

Skills

1 month

Front-end developer

UX designer

Figma

Flask

HTML

Python

CSS

Design Thinking Process

Design objectives

Define the problem
Target Audience
Pain Points

Research

Understanding the problem & User
Persona

Analysis

Summary of data gathered
Main themes and insights
Journey map of the experience

Ideation

User Flows
User Stories
Sketches

Tesing

Lo-Fi wireframes
Hi-Fi wireframes
Design Systems

Testing

User testing, expert review, etc.
Feedback intake
Accessibility review

Persona

User Journey Map

Low Fidelity Prototype

Design System

High Fidelity Prototype

Demo

Final Designs

Pika's final design is comprehensive and intuitive, helping users to efficiently store, access, and discover new recipes. The application has an easy-to-use interface that allows users to easily organize and access all their favorite recipes. Users are able to easily edit their recipes, rate their recipes, and view their top 3 highest-rated dishes.

One of the key design elements of Pika is its robust search capabilities, which allows users to find specific recipes based on ingredients, dietary restrictions, and other criteria. This makes it easy for users to find the perfect recipe for any occasion. Users also have the ability to rate and review recipes and have quick access to their favorite recipes based on the rate, which makes it easy for them to find their most loved recipes.

Another design feature of Pika is the "random" function, which allows users to randomly pick a recipe when they are not sure what they want to make. This can be a fun way to discover new recipes and add some variety to their meal plans.

Takeaways

The most challenging part of this project was the time constraint. As it was a midterm, I was given less than three weeks to complete it. This taught me to be able to pick and choose what is more feasible and important to achieve within the given timeframe. Despite this constraint, I was able to come up with a comprehensive recipe management app, Pika, which addresses several pain points for users.

During the project, I came up with several functionalities from insights gathered through user research. However, due to the time constraint, I was unable to add some of these functionalities, such as the ability to share recipes and a search engine that could easily access recipes based on dietary restrictions. Additionally, there were issues with the random recipe button that I wanted to improve, such as the ability to filter based on meal type.

Despite these limitations, I learned a lot from this project, particularly with CSS and Bootstrap, which I heavily used and was challenged by when working on this project. Additionally, it was challenging to dynamically create data entries and employ designs that made it more efficient to add and delete recipe entries, but it helped me hone my front-end development skills. Overall, this project taught me the importance of time management and the ability to prioritize and make quick decisions in order to deliver a functional and user-friendly app within a tight deadline.